Titan Chain Tractor Tire Chains - H Pattern - Twist Link - 1 Pair

Video Transcript for Titan Chain H Pattern Tractor Tire Chains Review

Hi everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the line of Titan Chain H Pattern tractor tire chains. Now the main thing to know here is that these are H pattern chains and if you're pretty familiar with normal passenger vehicle style tire chains, you might not be familiar with that. Really all that means is we've got this square formed in the chains that's gonna sit centered up with our tire and we'll see that throughout the chain. What this is going to do is give us a higher profile because it sits on top of the tread and less down in it like you might with a ladder pattern style that just sits across the tire and it's gonna be excellent for traction on deep mud and snow, not the best for ice, but it's gonna also help with traction when we're going a little bit sideways.

So if you've got a lot of uneven terrain on your farm or wherever you're driving your tractor and you're driving at a slant, it's gonna help provide a little bit of extra traction in those scenarios. It's also important to note that this style of chain is only approved for off-road use. So if you've got pavement or asphalt, you do want to go with a ladder pattern style. These are also gonna be a twisted link shape, which just means that they're less harsh on the angles and that's one of the reasons why it's not great for ice. Square link chains are great for that because those hard edges will break up the ice and then the construction here is gonna be low carbon steel, which isn't the best for corrosion resistance.

You just might find that these typically don't last as long due to that rust and corrosion. My advice would be when you're done using them, hang 'em up or lay 'em out, wash 'em off, and just make sure they can air dry really well. Don't just shove 'em in a cupboard somewhere waiting to be used again because any moisture left on there is gonna help corrode it faster. You'll also notice we're using a rubber tensioner here that's pulling out extra slack that's left in the chain after we hook it up because the tire train itself doesn't have any sort of cams or extra tightening mechanisms on it. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of points of adjustment here both on the Hs where we can move those around a little bit and on the levers on either end, which we'll show you later in the install process where you can dial in the fit a bit, but it only does so much and unfortunately without any extra tightening mechanisms, it's just gonna probably be a loose fit.

That's why we always recommend using a rubber tensioner like this. You can find those on our website and they come two to a pair so you get one for each chain that you're gonna have on the tractor. It's also important to note what size chain you're getting. The one we have installed today is fitting on tire size 14.9-24. You can check your own tire size and see if it matches up.

This chain is designed to fit multiple different sizes, but if your tire doesn't fall within that range, then you can find other options on our site. Just make sure you get the right one for you, but all the H pattern chains are gonna be pretty much the same. The only other thing you're probably wondering is how it installs, and this one is gonna be a little bit more involved because there's extra attachment points compared to a ladder pattern style chain. Don't worry, it's not too bad. We'll walk you through the process right now. First thing you wanna do for your install is get the chains laid out. And with this being a large tire chain, I think it's really important to just make sure nothing's tangled up because with this heavier, larger chain, if something is, it's gonna make your job a lot harder when you go to put it on the tire. So just check it now and we can look for proper orientation. The main thing we're looking for is these end links right here. So there's gonna be a smoother side and a more hook side. We want that hook side facing away from the tire and that smooth side to be the part that actually touches it. Now the ends, we actually have one end facing you right now that just has bare links. The other end over there will have some levers that we'll see later in the install. Normally you'd want those on the outside face of the tire, but with this style of chain there's gonna be one on the inside and the outside. So it doesn't really matter here. There's gonna be two ways you can go about installing this. We've got it laid out right now where if you wanted to, you could just drive onto the chain and hook it up at the top, but that presents a number of problems. This is a really heavy chain, so lifting all of that chain to the top to make your first connection is gonna be pretty cumbersome and you run the risk of just not being centered on the tire. It's really important to get the chain centered side to side and front to back to make sure there's not a bunch of slack stuck underneath that tire. So when you go to make your connection at the top, it's not an appropriate fit. Now, that method can work if it's just you, you only got your set of hands, then that's what you're gonna have to do really. Just again, be careful that you're centered up on the chain as you're driving over it. The other method that we're gonna do is have an extra set of hands operate the tractor. I'm gonna start just by draping a little bit of the chain over top of it and put the tractor in reverse. And as it slowly backs up, I'm going to feed the chain over the tire, making sure that it stays centered. It's gonna be a little less lifting on my part and I can watch it every step of the way to ensure that it stays centered. And all the slack that can be pulled out, is. If you go that route, just be careful, especially with the moving tractor. You don't want to get stuck underneath it. So just take it slow and be safe about it. So to start this off, gonna feed it over and I'm gonna take the side of the levers and feed that over first because that's the side. I'm gonna want to make sure that this center H section stays in a good spot for me. And I also wanna make sure again, side to side that it's centered on the tire, so you don't want it pulled over to one side like this where it's drooping down. Once you're happy with how it started, then you can get the tractor moving and just carefully feed it over. Okay, go a little bit more. That's good. Now when we get to this point where the bottom of the chain is fed out here and I can manipulate it a bit and the top is again, within reach, we can get the tractor parked and make the remainder of our connections. I'm gonna go for this center section first where we have these U-bolts with threaded pins. I'll try to keep my hands out of the way as best I can. So just unthread that pin and that U-bolt will join that middle section to our outer chain. Now you can see where one is hooked up right now and if we go up further on the chain, we can see between these H sections there's about a link of space in between each one where they come down and meet that sidewall. So that's what I'm gonna shoot for here. I'm gonna try to attach it to this link here on both sides. Depending on the tire and how it fits, that might just not be good enough for us and it's feeling pretty snug. So I'm gonna try out one link down, do that on both sides and we'll see how we feel about that. This is why you wanna test for fitment before you need to actually use the chains because depending on your tire and the wear on the tread and just the slight size variance that you're bound to get. You're gonna have a setting that works best for you. So it's best to figure that out now. And the outer levers will go to the remaining links on the end here, just feeding through and folding back on themselves, hooking to that catch plate there. And just again, repeat that on both sides. Our last step here is the rubber tensioner. Now this is not included with the tire chain, but you can find it in the related parts section if you scroll down on the page. And we strongly recommend using one, because it's gonna pull a lot of that excess slack out of the chain. You can see right here that little bend that we're getting is from the slack. So that's gonna result in a more secure fit on the tire that is, and make sure it just doesn't shift around on us. So when you are applying this, you want to go in a star shape pattern as evenly as you can across the tire and you might go ahead and finish installing these and notice that these two here are bunched up pretty close together. So you want to take one off and just move it around. And once you're happy with the fit, that'll do it. You can repeat that process on the other side of your tractor, drive forward a few times and just come out and check on 'em. Make sure nothing loosened up on you. The fit on these is a little bit more funky with double the attachment points of a typical ladder pattern style, but then you're ready to get to work. And that'll do it for our look at the line of H pattern track tire chains from Titan Chain. Thanks for watching.